Weather Eye: harnessing lightning

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Lightning carries electrical currents of more than 100,000 amps, can exceed a million volts and heats the air to 28,000C (50,000F) — hotter than the surface of the Sun. All that energy disappears, quite literally, in a flash. Recently, scientists at the University of Southampton and the mobile phone maker Nokia have charged a mobile phone using simulated lightning, offering the promise of harnessing power from lightning in a novel form of renewable energy.

The scientists used a transformer to channel more than 200,000 volts of electricity across a 30cm (12in) gap, similar to a lightning bolt. The signal was received

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